Gary Lanham, Minter Ellison

Gary has dealt with all succession related matters great and small, advising individuals and families on their wills and estate planning for more than 40 years. A leading estate and trust practitioner and one of a small group of specialists in Succession law accredited by the Queensland Law Society, Gary is also one of only two approved Estate Account Assessors available to be appointed by the Queensland Supreme Court. [This regime, a re-write of part of Uniform Civil Procedure Rules, outsources assessment of deceased estate and trust accounts away from the Court Registry, to private, qualified solicitors, since 2012. He was the first person appointed under those changed rules to examine a set of estate accounts.]

Gary's extensive experience includes:

conduct of more than 75 Supreme Court cases relating to wills, estate administration and family provision;

acting as executor;

appointed by the Supreme Court as administrator to resolve troubled estates;

procedures required to obtain reciprocal recognition of testamentary instruments from one jurisdiction to another;

conduct of the first Queensland application to define the Court's (then) new power to admit words to the will;

conduct of the appeal to the Queensland Court of Appeal to (then) define the proper limits of step-child eligibility in Family Provision;

conduct of an application to establish and define the audit-like role of the Registrar in passing estate accounts for the purpose of assessing commission; and

disputes and court assisted estate administrations to advise on the techniques to avoid disputes.

Clients rely on Gary for advice relating to enduring powers of attorney (substitute decision making), superannuation, and not for profit structuring, as well as broader issues relating to complex drafting, trustee's duties, estate and trust tax, and perpetuities.

Gary is a member of the Society of Trust and Estate Practitioners, which has members in all the major estate and trust jurisdictions throughout the world. He is the current Chair of the Queensland Law Society Succession Law Committee and the past Chair of the Queensland Law Society Succession law Specialist Accreditation Advisory Committee.